Re: How old are Emacs users?

[Sebastian Tennant <sebyte@smolny.plus.com>]

Quoth GianUberto.Lauri@eng.it (Gian Uberto Lauri):
>>>>>> "s" == sixdegreepub  <sixdegreepub@gmail.com> writes:
>
> s>     I'm 15 and I began to use Emacs and Linux recently.  

This is probably one of the best decisions you will ever make!  Emacs
is probably the most universally useful program ever written.  It can
do virtually anything you tell it to.

Vis-a-vis the freedoms embodied in Emacs and Linux, this is also a
vitally important and again the choice you have made is the right one.

Any work you do within the world of free software will be of lasting
value for generations to come (if it's any good :-).  Proprietary
software has a shelf-life, just like every other commodity in the
marketplace.

You mayn't get rich SO quickly, but the fact is, with free software,
whether you're living in a damp basement apartment, living on pizza
and barely able to pay the rent, or earning lots of money working for
a multi-national corporation in shiny, modern offices in the centre of
the business district, you are never, ever, wasting your time.

> s> I say that is unknown, because  I am not able to tell my classmates
> s> what its advantage is.

Free software is better by design, implementaion, maintenance model,
and principle (and the folks who work on it are nicer :-)

In a year or two, the idea of paying money for crappy shrink-wrapped
brain-damaged software that doesn't let you tinker with it in any way
will astound you!

I recently saw an interesting DVD you might like to watch called
'Revolution OS'.  Get it from Amazon.  It features quite a lot of good
stuff, and it will introduce you to Richard Stallman, the visionary
founder of the Free Software Movement (and primary author of Emacs).

> s> Also that is because I am not familiar with Emacs.
>
> There is always something to learn with Emacs :).

This is very true.

> You will learn  that Emacs can work for you as  opposed to require you
> to manouver it over and over again...
>
> Start with C-x ( and C-x ).

In case you're confused, that's 'C-x (' and 'C-x )', but I'm not sure
if keyboard macros are the best place to start.

Congratulations.  I guarantee you will never look back.

Sebastian